THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

In Stranger Inside, director Cheryl Dunye ( The Watermelon Woman ) teams with HBO Films on a powerful new film about a juvenile prisoner's dream of reuniting with her mother in a women's state prison where her mother is sentenced to life. Separated at birth from her imprisoned mother, Treasure Lee has been in and out of jail for as long as she can remember. For Treasure, the transfer to State on her 21st birthday might just be her way back home. To create this unflinching study of life inside a women's prison, Dunye collaborated on the screenplay with Chicago screenwriter Catherine Crouch and inmates in the Minnesota Shakopee Women's Correctional Facility. Numerous former prisoners are also cast in featured roles throughout the film.

Stranger Inside premieres Saturday, March 17 at 8:15 p.m. at The Gene Siskel Film Center, 280 S. Columbus, at Jackson Blvd. in the loop. A reception with Dunye and HBO Films vice president Maud Nadler will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Betty Rymer Gallery ( downstairs ) to present and discuss her film.

In Compensation, inspired by the 1906 poem by African American writer Paul Laurence Dunbar, director Zeinabu Irene Davis tells two parallel love stories set in turn-of-the-century Chicago, both about the relationship between a deaf woman and a hearing man. Tuberculosis and AIDS are the era epidemics the two couples in Compensation will confront as timely challenges to their lifelong happiness. Davis will present Compensation on Thursday, March 22 at 7 p.m. at the South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 South Shore Drive.

Also featured is Breakin' the Glass: The American Basketball League 1996-1998 ( Marla Leech & Dina Munsch ) . After the U.S. Women's Basketball Team took the gold at the 1996 summer games, two members of the team came home and laid the groundwork for the ABL, the first women's league. When the WNBA formed years later, with backing by the NBA and lower salaries, shorter seasons and poorer benefits for players, it forced the ABL into bankruptcy. This video takes a look at the players, the philosophy, the fans and the passion that sustained the groundbreaking ABL. Shows Saturday, March 17, 7 p.m. at the Preston Bradley Center, 941 W. Lawrence, 1st floor.

I am Your Sister ( Lashambi Britton ) is a remarkable series of interviews with transgendered women who speak openly about their lives and transitions, demonstrating that the experience of being transgendered in the U.S. is as diverse and complex as the individuals who live it. Shown Saturday, March 17, 9 p.m. at the Preston Bradley Center, 941 W. Lawrence, 1st floor.

There are also panels, a dyke Night of films March 17, and much more. Call 9773 ) 907-0610 or visit the website at www.widc.org .